High summer, and it's about time you dusted off your occasional legs and put on your club runs legs...a feast of entertainment awaits on the Summer Club runs...why not come along, or better still put yourself forward to lead...

If you are able to lead a club run or two, please post the date and café destination on this thread.

Note: This purpose of this topic is compile the schedule of club runs. Discussion about individual rides, including rider lists, should be done in a separate thread - one for each Sunday.

Given that a) I don't yet have a suitable bike, and b) I can't actually ride a bike at the moment, this posting perhaps comes under the heading of wishful thinking. Nevertheless...

Four members of this club are planning to ride the Eroica in Italy in October. I know that a handful of other members have suitable bikes and an interest in this field. With that in mind, I fancy organising an Eroica club run, partly as a pre-Eroica road test for the bike I don't yet have and partly just for the fun of it. I don't envisage any strict application of Eroica rules: anyone who fancies the ride is welcome, including people on modern bikes who simply want to admire other people's vintage bikes.

I don't yet have any fixed ideas about a destination, but I am thinking of an arrangement whereby the route includes a halt/meeting point somewhere between the BH and the café, so that there is a 'short-course' option for elderly members with suitable bikes. Otherwise, standard club run format. The pace and distance will be appropriate for the nature of the bikes involved and the age/infirmity of the people involved.

I'm posting now so that we can pick a date that suits would-be participants before everyone starts making competing plans. I'll put up full details in a dedicated thread closer to the time.

Edit:
In the Facebook discussion, the preference seems to be for the 20th. So that's the provisional date.

20th is good for me George, on my 1960ish Percy Stallard. But like me it's seen better days and is a bit slow. We are off to France next week for the Anjou Velo, looks like a retro tour of the Anjou vineyards.

Great idea George. I'm doing the Eroica Britannia next Sunday. I could probably do a ride on either 20th or 27th but former is more likely to be free from holiday negotiations because I know I am going to Edgbaston on the day before.

Sorry to go back and forth with so many different ideas, but a few people have now told me that that they can't make either the 20th or the 27th. So I was wondering about 3 September. Of course, the closer to autumn it gets, the worse the weather prospects, but hopefully that date won't be a fat lot different to late August. What do people think?

I'm proposing running the previously postponed Eddy Merckx ride from April on the 13th August.

Full details below as before:

Starting from Stone in Staffordshire we shall head South East through Milford skirting along the edge of Cannock Chase before heading South West to Penkridge before heading North West up to our cafe stop in Newport, Shropshire.

From here we head North East a short distance to the small market town of Eccleshall to the Merckx Bar which is full of Cannibal related memorabilia and some rather tasty Belgian Beers & a selection of home made pork pies.

From here we attempt to ride in a straight line back to Stone for the finish.

The ride is 54 miles in length with very little climbing but should prove to be a good day out on the bike. Usual rules apply there will be no specific pace and we all keep together.

The public car park in Stone is in the A520 Christchurch Way just before Morrisons on the one way system, ST15 8ZB. Parking is free on a Sunday.

EDITED!
The Eroica club run is going to have to be 27 August. I'm happy to make it a combined Eroica + C run, if no there's no volunteer to lead a separate C run. I haven't worked out the details yet, but it's likely to be a meandering route to somewhere easy, e.g. Grafton Flyford. Details follow early next week, when I'll start a separate thread.

It will be a 08:00 start from the Black Horse with a target of the Jack Hills Cafe (one of Paul Johnson's suggestions) which is just 1km on from Towcester. They are open until 14:00 and have a VW meet on the Sunday so a chance to look around some classic cars!
If we are tight for time then Bell's Plantation is open across the road until 16:30.